Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 40, Number 6, 1 June 2023 — OHA's Board of Trustees Meet with Maui Kupa [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OHA's Board of Trustees Meet with Maui Kupa

As part of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Board of Trustees' recent Maui lsland community and regular board meetings on May 24 and 25, trustees took the opportunity while on the island to visit with Bobby Pahia and his team at Hawai'i Taro Farm in Wailuku (top photo) and with iwi kūpuna advocate Noelani Ahia at Parkways at Maui Lani in Kahului (bottom photo). Pictured at the Hawai'i Taro Farm are: (kneeling) Bobby Pahia and his daughter, Kiana Reyes. In the back row (l-r) are trustees Dan Ahuna, Brickwood Galuteria, Luana Alapa, Hawai'i Taro Farm's Germaine Balino, trustees Hulu Lindsey, Keli'i Akina, Mililani Trask and Keoni Souza, OHA CE0 Dr. Sylvia Hussey, and Trustee Kalei Akaka. Hawai'i Taro Farm is a hui of 23 family farmers who are trying to create a network of growers and a centrally located hub with processing and food distribution facilities for the island. They are encouraging new farmers to eome and farm on their 310 acres to help build sustainability and food security on Maui. Pictured at Maui Lani (l-r) are Trustee Akaka (with her daughter), trustees Ahuna and Souza, Noelani Ahia, trustees Lindsey, Galuteria, Trask, and CE0 Hussey. Iwi kūpuna were discovered during the construction of the Maui Lani housing development. Ahia and her hui of volunteers were able to hloek the construction of some of the homes and reinter some of the iwi that were disturbed, but could not stop the entire project. Homes at the Maui Lani development range from $900,000 to $1.5 million. - Photos: Jason Lees